Eating The Food We Planted For Our Food To Eat

 For the past few years, DH has turned one corner of our field into a deer food plot.  In part of the corner is ryegrass, and in another he seeds turnips, rapeseed, and radishes.  The turnips grow really well, and the deer really appreciate them from about this time in December all through the rest of the winter.  They eat both the tops (greens) and the roots (turnip).

Late in 2020, DH pulled up a large turnip and brought it to the house to show me how big it was, and to tell me that it was one of the few that wasn't at least partially eaten by deer while still in the ground. He was excited by the success of this crop, both that it grew well with little effort--other than tilling the ground before planting--and that it drew the deer to hang out in that corner (where he has been able to harvest venison in late season each December since).

Neither he nor I grew up eating turnips, but we knew they were edible to humans as well as deer, so we decided to give it a try.  Since, after all, he'd brought that turnip up to the house and we'd handled it with bare hands and subsequently gotten human scent all over it.  If he tossed it back in the food plot it may or may not make the deer wary of the whole plot (scent) and was not as likely to get eaten by them.  It was such a beautiful turnip we didn't want to waste it.  So I looked up turnip recipes, and we gave it a try.

We were both surprised to actually really like the flavor of that turnip.  Since then, we've eaten them off and on through the fall and winters.  I even tried growing them in the garden in 2021, but they seem to grow much better out in the corner of the field just hand broadcast and left to live or die on their own than they did when I cultivated them in the designated spot for growing people food (garden).

So, now we just throw the turnip seed out in the food plot and ignore the sprouts for a few months until DH is walking past them pretty much daily on his way to and from the deer stand.  At that point, he will pull a couple now and then, and I cook them up for dinner.  They are good roasted, sliced and fried, and in my pasty recipe (substituted for or in addition to rutabaga).  You can also boil and mash them, but we've found them to be a bit 'runny' this way and prefer mashed potatoes over mashed turnips.

Turnips can also be found in the grocery store, although I think we'll just stick with eating them for 'free' pulled out of the deer plot rather than adding them to the shopping list and paying for ones grown somewhere else.

homegrown organic deer/human food